Feyland: The Dark Realm

Chapter Fourteen

Jennet smiled at her reflection as she got ready for school the next morning. Hair a brighter shade of gold, eyes that sparkled - yes! She felt better than she had in weeks. Somehow, being back in Feyland had restored some of her energy.

Conviction rushed through her. She was going to win, going to make it all the way to the Court and get back the piece of herself she had lost.

Then her mood dimmed, the glint fading from her reflection’s eye. That was, assuming she could enter the game by herself. She’d been so certain she was in - but then she’d tried to go in-game again, after Tam had left.

Once again she’d been stuck, trapped at the first level with no quest-giver and no way forward. Which meant that she still needed Tam.

And she had to tell him the truth about Feyland - that it was an actual place, somehow connected to the real world. She couldn’t ask him to go any further in-game without knowing what he was getting into. Though there was no guarantee he’d believe her, and the thought of telling him made her feel sick. She squeezed her eyes tight and concentrated on keeping her breakfast down.

“It is time to depart for school, Miss Jennet.” HANA’s even tones rang through the bedroom intercom.

“Ok, I’m coming.” Jennet hurried out of the bathroom and grabbed her satchel, then paused in front of her bookshelf. Her Dad thought she was crazy for still wanting the paper books that lined the shelves.

“It makes no sense,” he had said, watching the hired movers carry the last of the heavy boxes of books away from their old house. He’d slipped his tablet out of his pocket and waved it at her. “This is where all those books could be - plus thousands more. Instead you’re going to give the workers a hernia.”

“I like old tech, Dad.” Especially since some of those books were too old, too rare. They didn’t exist in e-form. Neither she nor Dad would mention Thomas, or the fact that some of those books had belonged to him. Since he’d died, they never, ever talked about him.

She ran her fingertips along the bumpy spines until she found Tales of Folk and Faerie, a collection that was nearly three-hundred years old. It had belonged to Thomas. She’d salvaged the aging binding and done what she could to reinforce the delicate paper. With a whispered apology, she slid the book out and tucked it into her satchel. Tam needed to see this, needed to look at the stories and illustrations and have it all start to make sense. The way it finally had for her.

“Miss Jennet? Is there a reason to delay?”

“I’m on my way.” Sometimes she wished HANA would lose that machine patience and sound irritated. Just once. So that Jennet could pretend there was a real person there, who actually cared if she was late to class.

# # #

She made it to school on time. The only problem was, Tam wasn’t there. She was sure at lunch, when she saw Marny sitting in the cafeteria. Alone.

Jennet took a deep breath and swallowed back the bitter tang of worry. There could be a hundred reasons Tam hadn’t made it today.

Too bad all the things she could think of went from bad to horrible. Something had happened, she just knew it - somehow the game had harmed him already. Feyland had been completely unpredictable last night. It wasn’t such a stretch to think the game had done something to Tam.

And it was her fault.

Maybe Marny knew something. Jennet grabbed her tray and walked over to the big girl. Without waiting for an invitation, she set her lunch down across from Marny and took a seat. A shocked little buzz of attention followed her, making the back of Jennet’s neck prickle - but there was no way she was waiting until the end of school.